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Thursday, August 20, 2015

Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share three movie picks each Thursday. The
rules are simple simple: Each week there is a topic for
you to create a list of three movies. Your picks can either be
favourites/best, worst, hidden gems, or if you're up to it one of
each.For further details visit the
series main page here.

If you think the title of today's theme looks a bit different, it's because I change it from Foreign Language to Non-English Language. Now that that is out of the way, today it's movies set in East Asia. As usual a little caveat: it must not be horror. Why? Because horror is possibly the region's biggest export so we're here to share other interesting titles from other genres. Plus I already have Asian Horror as a theme forthe TMP Halloween edition. If you are not too sure what countries are part of East Asia, please Google it :).

Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)The moviecenters on a10th century Chinese royal family (fictional?) that probably rivals that of the Romans with its mix of betrayal, murder, revenge and infidelity. Visually, Curse of the Golden Flowers is a feast for the eyes. It hasgorgeous, extravagant, over the top sets and costumes that are just dripping in gold. The story goes a little opera-ish but overall it really is a fun watch, so just sit back and watch as this family implode.

Hana and Alice (2004)Oh I'm having trouble picking a Japanese movie. I've probably watched more than I can now remember and the ones I do remember, I've already picked before, don't like or can't remember much of. So I'm going to go with quiet and odd but charming movie Hana and Alice about two girls who have a crush on a boy the see at a train station. When the boy suffers temporary memory loss after a little accident, one of them pretends she's his girlfriend.Hwang Jin Yi (2007)Yes another period drama. This time it's 16th century Korea and centers around the title character, Hwang Jin Yi, a noblewoman who chose to become a gisaeng (a female entertainer/courtesan). I don't quite understand the world it depicts but it is fascinating to watch and of course there's the gorgeous costumes.

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I;ve not seen two of these films - I'm showing up my lack of asian film knowledge... I have seen Curse of the Golden Flower, it was part of world film challenge I did a few years ago. Beautiful film but the story irritated me.